Bradford's Pursuit of Happiness

We unfortunates are mainly given to witnessing what we write about first-hand, but sometimes we simply have to give in and point readers in the direction of those who know best. In this case, the subject is Bradford City and the ten year affliction (and counting) that it has burdened its supporters with. How far we, fans of rival teams that have each enjoyed some semblance of success in the past decade, can empathise is an open question, so rather than patronise Bantams with sentiments of knowing what it’s like to be there etc, we think it’s best to go to a more authoritative source.

Boy From Brazil is without doubt that place. This week, after succumbing to a fourth consecutive defeat, blogger Jason McKeown can’t help but expose his enduring agony and frustration at events in West Yorkshire in his match report of yesterday’s loss at home to Port Vale. While Micky Adams’ side is described as a team that’s ready for a promotion race, Bradford appear leaderless, disunited and corrupted by fear and self-loathing. So much was predicted by fellow Boy From Brazil writer Michael Wood in his contribution to our League 2 Season Preview should his side have suffered a bad start.

In most cases, we unfortunates would opt to back the underdog which, in League 2’s case, would be a Torquay or a Lincoln. In this case, however, it would take a mean-spirit to wish any further melancholy on this sorry lot. It could be a long season for Bradford, but let’s hope for the health of their supporters that their poor start is but a minor bump in the pursuit of happiness.

2 Comments

The rational side of my brain can only share your sympathetic perspective.

However, the irrational side of my brain is stuck outside Valley Parade in February 1999. We had just lost 2-0 to the Bantams (Mills, McCall from memory) and had been utterly woeful. However it hadn't been a nasty game, and the two sides didn't have a “history” that I was aware of, so the gnarled local who bellowed “Christ you're sh**e” in my face as we left came as something of a surprise.

Only one bloke, of course. Hardly a representative sample, and to be fair he had a point. We had been dreadful. Nonetheless, neither the fact that we overcame one particularly bad afternoon to join the Bantams in promotion, nor the multitude of ups and downs both sides have enjoyed since, have rinsed his face from my mind. So, the irrational side of my brain is a little less sympathetic…

Must admit that I hold equally irrational views on certain teams. There's a variety of reasons, including sharing too many similarities with Argyle in size and stature, being crap but always beating us, and being associated with a fan who head-butted a friend of mine for no apparent reason walking throgh Central Park in Plymouth. Hull, Walsall and Chesterfield are the teams.

On the other hand, I did once have real venom for Burnley because of a play-off defeat in '94 and a final day relegation in '98, but that's pretty much subsided completely now. You can't have any beef for a side that numbers Wade Elliott in its starting XI.